This article presents a historical analysis of work management and education in the healthcare field over the three decades since the creation of Brazil's Unified Health System (SUS, acronym in Portuguese). Using the sociology of professions as a frame of reference, it addresses the following topics: the health labor market; trends in healthcare employment; the healthcare workforce; and the regulation and dynamics of undergraduate programs in the health field. It analyzes each of the moments that characterize the area, from the pre-SUS period to the present day. The period has witnessed the following: a boom in health schools, largely in the private sector; an overall increase in the level of education of health professionals , an increase in regional inequity; an alarming increase in distance learning programs; an imbalance between labor supply and demand; the expansion of installed capacity; the municipalization of health employment; an increased focus on multiprofessional teams; and an increase in precarious work and informal contractual relationships and deterioration of pay levels.